


The Hanging Lady

by Seraph_Novak



Series: Tyrus One-Shots [51]
Category: Andi Mack (TV)
Genre: Boyfriends, Cute, Established Relationship, Good Hair Crew (Andi Mack), Happy Ending, Haunted Houses, Light Angst, M/M, Multi, One Shot, Scary, T. J. Kippen & Amber Are Siblings, Tyrus - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-03
Updated: 2019-06-03
Packaged: 2020-04-07 04:21:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19077385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Seraph_Novak/pseuds/Seraph_Novak
Summary: Fic request ~ The Good Hair Crew (and their respective partners, plus Jonah) decide to spend the night in a supposedly haunted house. The couple who lasts the longest wins the game.





	The Hanging Lady

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, guys! It feels like it's been ages since I last wrote a Tyrus fic... I've missed my boys so much! But now that I've finished school for the summer, I finally have some extra time to write. It took me a little while to get back into writing, so sorry if this isn't as good as my other works, but I enjoyed writing it all the same. 
> 
> As always, all comments and kudos are very much appreciated ♥
> 
> [My Tumblr](https://seraph-novak.tumblr.com)

There was something undeniably creepy about the house behind the woods. It was old, for a start. And empty. Cyrus could feel it as they approached the treeline: an eerie stillness surrounding the building. It oozed from the rotting bricks and threw a strange aura into the air, discolouring the sky that hung above it. The others could feel it too, if the sudden hush that had fallen over the group was anything to go by.

“Remind me why we’re doing this again?” Andi asked. She was leaning against Amber’s arm with a tight, panicked expression as she stared up at the house.

At the front of the group, Buffy turned around with a slightly manic grin. “Because it’s fun!”

Cyrus frowned, genuinely perplexed by that. “I think we have very different definitions of the word ‘fun’.”

“Look.” Buffy dumped her rucksack on the ground, a cloud of dust rising like fog around her feet, and approached the group. She was in coach-mode right now, hyping up her team before a big game. “The rules are simple, okay? The couple who lasts the longest without chickening out wins.” She considered the small sea of frightened faces staring back at her and smirked. “And judging by the fear in all of your eyes, we probably won’t last more than a couple hours. So don’t worry.”

Amber scoffed. “Is that trash talk, Driscoll?”

“Maybe.”

“Well, I wouldn’t get too cocky.” Amber slung an arm around Andi’s shoulders and smiled, arching a perfectly shaped eyebrow as she looked Buffy up and down. “This idea might be dumb as hell, but that doesn’t mean we’re not gonna try.”

Buffy folded her arms and snorted. “You honestly think you have a chance against me and Marty?”

“Oh, I think we have more than a chance.”

“Okay. Sure.” Buffy barked a laugh. “Good luck with that, Kippen.”

Cyrus glanced at TJ. “Well, this is gonna be a fun night.”

“Yeah.” TJ tore his eyes away from the house and swallowed thickly, giving Cyrus’ hand a brief squeeze. There was a thin sheen of sweat glittering across his forehead, probably from the hike. “This place is kinda creepy, right?”

“I was actually talking about Buffy and Amber bickering, but yeah. Creepy’s one word for it.”

TJ huffed a laugh. “Oh. Right.”

“You okay?”

“Hm? Oh, I’m fine.”

Cyrus touched his boyfriend’s arm, frowning at the shudder that trembled beneath his fingertips. TJ had gone back to staring at the house, and his eyes were wide and watery. But Cyrus didn’t question it. After two years of dating, he could read TJ like an open book, and now was not the time to push him.

“What about me?” Jonah asked from the back of the group, completely dwarfed by the large rucksack mounted on his back. “I’m the only single one here.”

Andi grabbed his arm and yanked him towards her and Amber. “You can go with us!”

“Is that allowed?”

“I don’t care,” Buffy said with a shrug. “It only makes your odds of losing higher.”

Amber patted Jonah fondly on the cheek. “Jonah’s not gonna bail on us. If he can survive teaming up with two of his exes, he can handle a haunted house.”

“Wait,” Cyrus squeaked. “ _Both_  of us have to stay to win?”

Buffy rolled her eyes. “Well,  _duh_.”

“Oh, no…”

“Don’t worry about it, Underdog,” TJ murmured softly. He lifted their joined hands to his lips and kissed the knobbly bumps of Cyrus’ knuckles. “I’ll protect you.”

“Sure,” Amber coughed into her fist, feigning a cheery smile of innocence in response to TJ’s cautionary glare.

“TJ’s right,” Buffy said, fixing Cyrus with a mocking smile as she wrapped an arm around Marty’s waist. “There’s no point in worrying about it, because none of you have a chance at winning. You might as well accept defeat and go home now. Right, babe?”

Marty lifted his fist, and Buffy bumped it with a wicked grin. “We’re gonna own these suckers.” 

After a few more rounds of repartee, they gathered their things and broke through the trees, the house standing tall and proud without the veil of leaves cloaking its presence from the outside world. The stone steps leading up to the porch were caked in cobwebs, and there was a single band of sun-faded police tape stretched across the front door. Probably to keep out trespassers.  

“Well,” Cyrus said, his stomach twisting unpleasantly, “isn’t  _that_ inviting.”

Buffy flapped a dismissive hand in the air. “It’ll be fine.”

“People come here all the time,” Marty concurred.

“But, the police –”

“Are you forfeiting already?”

“Um…”

Andi placed a comforting hand on his shoulder and smiled. “It’s okay if you don’t wanna do this, Cy. No one’s forcing you to.”

All it took was one glance at Amber and Buffy’s smug faces for him to make up his mind. If he backed out now, he’d never hear the end of it, and he was determined to prove them wrong. Plus, he couldn’t stand the thought of letting TJ down like that, even though he was fairly certain his boyfriend wouldn’t hold it against him.

“Okay,” he said, sucking in a deep breath. “I’m in.”

The door fell open with the slightest touch of Buffy’s hand. Inside the decaying hallway, shadows shrank away from the sunlight as it spilled inside, splashing the walls and lapping into the dank and distant corners. Specks of dust floated like stars in a beam of light that gushed from a hole in the roof, reaching through the cracks in the floors and scorching the crumbling planks of wood beneath their feet. At the end of the hallway, a regal flight of stairs ascended into the shadows, disappearing behind a wall of curling, floral paper muddied with patches of damp. There was a strange, sorrowful scent hanging in the air. Muted, but definitely noticeable. It gave Cyrus the creeps.

“Wow,” Buffy breathed, dropping her rucksack to the floor. With a stunned smile, she reached out her arms and tilted her face towards the exposed sunlight dripping from the ceiling. “Isn’t this place amazing?”

TJ scratched the back of his neck. “Do you want my honest opinion, or…?”

“There’s no internet,” Amber pointed out with a grimace as she tapped impatiently at her phone. 

“It’s very big,” Andi acknowledged.

“Yeah,” Cyrus agreed, gulping as he glanced around. There were only two rooms on the ground floor, one on either side of the staircase, and the hole in the ceiling appeared to journey through half a dozen floors before reaching the sky.

Buffy shrugged. “The more room the better, right?”

“I guess.”

They spread out their things in the room to the right, next to an ancient fireplace stuffed with hunks of festering wood and stone-grey ashes. It was already growing dark outside, the dust-speckled sunlight dwindling as the murky shadows of dusk pressed against the windows. With nothing else to do, they crawled into their sleeping bags and turned on their torches, casting stark shadows across their trembling faces.

“What do we do now?” Jonah asked, his teeth chattering at the sudden drop in temperature.

Buffy leaned back on her elbows and smirked. “Now we wait for the haunting to start.”

~~~~~

For the next hour or so, they entertained themselves with cheesy ghost stories and plenty of snacks, and Cyrus was surprised to find himself having fun. While Marty tried to scare the group with his laughable Freddy Krueger impression, Cyrus snuggled against TJ’s shoulder with a contented sigh. He could feel his eyes drifting closed when he suddenly realised how tense his boyfriend felt beneath his cheek.

“TJ?” he asked, keeping his voice as soft as possible. “Are you okay?”

TJ nodded. “I’m fine, sweetheart.”

Cyrus blinked at the unexpected pet name. When TJ was being affectionate, he always called him Underdog. That was their thing. He only ever used words like ‘babe’ or ‘hon’ or ‘sweetheart’ when he felt guilty. Usually when he was hiding something from him.

“Talk to me, Teej.” He threaded their fingers together and held TJ’s clammy hand against his chest. “What’s wrong?”  

“He’s probably thinking about the Hanging Lady,” Amber said, a devious smile twisting her lips.

Cyrus frowned. “Who?”

“It’s nothing,” TJ said through gritted teeth. “Just a stupid story from when we were kids.”

Buffy clapped her hands together. “Ooh, tell us the story!”

“No way –”

“You really wanna hear it?” Amber asked, deliberately ignoring her brother. Her eyes were shining as she stood up and moved to the centre of the group, grinning like a fame-hungry actress bowing in front of a crowd. “Okay, fine.”

TJ groaned.

“In our old house, before we moved to Shadyside, there was a hot water tank in the loft that made this horrible creaking sound at 3:15 every night. TJ was, like, five at the time, so he still peed the bed –”

“Not true!”

“– and I was seven, so I loved to mess around with him. The tank was right above his bedroom, so you could hear it the loudest in there, and it really freaked him out.”

Buffy sneered. “Why?”

“Well,” Amber continued, her lips twitching with a smirk, “I told him an old lady had hung herself in the loft years ago, at exactly 3:15, and you could still hear the creaking of the rope swinging back and forth in the middle of the night.”

“You were seven when you made that up?” Buffy asked, sounding impressed. “Not bad, Kippen.”

“I know.”

“That’s sick,” Jonah said, but Cyrus could see him fighting back a smile. “I bet that really scared him, huh?”

Amber laughed. “Oh, yeah. He used to cry himself to sleep. It was hilarious.”

Cyrus wrinkled his nose. “That doesn’t sound hilarious.”

“Calm down.” Buffy rolled her eyes. “You’re just sticking up for your boyfriend.”

“Well,  _yeah_.”

“It’s okay,” TJ told him, a shamed blush creeping up his neck. “Don’t give them the satisfaction.”

“But –”

“Are you still scared of the Hanging Lady?” Amber asked as she crept across the room, a creaking noise rising from the back of her throat as she crouched in front of her brother. “Can you hear that? She’s coming for you, TJ. The Hanging Lady knows you’re here.”

TJ pressed his lips into a thin line. “I haven’t been scared of that story since we moved house.”

“It doesn’t matter where you go,” Amber continued. There was a cruel gleam in her eyes now, reminiscent of the old, spiteful version of the girl Amber had worked so hard to shed over the years. It was unnerving. “Ghosts latch onto people, you know? They follow you through your life, watching you grow old, waiting for the perfect moment to strike…”

As if on cue, a sudden gust of wind knocked against the house, rattling the old wood of the front door with a sickening creak. TJ yelped, and Cyrus felt the solid warmth of his hand jerk out of his grip, slicing an arc through the air as he tumbled backwards and slammed his head against the floor.

“TJ!”

“I’m okay,” his boyfriend groaned in response, blindly reaching for Cyrus’ proffered hand as the rest of the group burst into fits of uncontrollable giggles.

With his arm looped protectively around TJ’s waist, Cyrus shot the rest of the group a venomous glare. “What is  _wrong_  with you?”

“C’mon, Cy!” Buffy wheezed, her cheeks glistening with tears of laughter. “You have to admit, that was pretty funny.”

“It really wasn’t.”

“We’re just tryna have some fun,” Amber insisted, her tone surprisingly gentle. She was smiling just as widely as the rest of them, but her eyes had stopped glimmering, and Cyrus could swear he saw a flicker of guilt cross her face as she glanced over at her brother. “It was just a joke, TJ.”  

Cyrus scoffed. “He could’ve really hurt himself.”

“How was I supposed to know he was gonna flip out like that?”

“You shouldn’t be ganging up on him in the first place!”

“Well, he shouldn’t make it so easy then.”

“Screw you,” TJ spat at his sister, the hardness in his voice crushing the final titters from the group into silence. There was an angry blush creeping up his neck, and the muscles in his jaw were twitching in time with his rapidly blinking eyes. Cyrus felt him trembling in his arms as he struggled to his feet, sweeping a fierce gaze across his so-called friends before shrugging out of Cyrus’ grip and storming into the next room.     

Cyrus watched him leave, then sighed. “Well done, guys. I hope you’re pleased with yourselves.”

“It’s just a game, Cy –”

“A game that’s turning you all into a bunch of jerks,” he interjected, his cheeks flaming with heat as the unfamiliar insult fizzled on his tongue, tasting like one of those sour sweets you can’t bear to swallow too quickly. He hated conflict, especially when it involved the people he cared about, but some things couldn’t go unsaid. “You knew he was getting upset, and you kept pushing him. That doesn’t sound like a game to me.”

Amber lowered her head, a curtain of blonde waves falling across her face. When she looked up again, her fair skin was glowing faintly in the shaft of white light protruding from the torch in her trembling hands. “I didn’t mean to hurt him,” she said, quiet and earnest. “Can you tell him I’m sorry?”

“Do it yourself.”

And with that, he got to his feet and walked away, following his boyfriend into the other doorless room painted an ugly, yellowing white. TJ was standing at the very back of the room, his forehead pressed against the chipped wood of an old dumbwaiter. He was shaking all over, and Cyrus’ heart pinched at the sight. All he wanted to do was rush across the room and throw his arms around him, but he knew it was best to take things slow. TJ was like a wild animal when he was hurt and embarrassed, easy to startle and quick to run away. So instead, he approached him calmly, letting TJ know he was there before putting a hand on his shoulder.

“Hey,” he said softly.

TJ turned away. “I’m sorry, Cyrus.”

“What are you sorry for? You didn’t do anything wrong!”

“I overreacted.”

“You were scared.”

“I know.” TJ rubbed his face against his shoulder, drying his eyes as discreetly as possible. “I’m such a coward… I mean, what kind of seventeen-year-old is still scared of stupid ghost stories?”

Cyrus chuckled. “Um. Me?”

“But I’m supposed to be the brave one!”

“You’re not  _supposed_  to be anything other than who you are.”

TJ glanced up at him, his eyes underlined by dark lines. He looked exhausted. “I told you I’d protect you.”

“You still can.”

“You really believe that now?”

“I believe one thing,” he said, gently cupping TJ’s chin and tilting his face towards him. As soon as he had his boyfriend’s full attention, he kissed him sweetly on the lips and took him by the hands. His palms were slightly greasy from the thick layer of grime clinging to the wooden lip of the dumbwaiter, but Cyrus didn’t care. “You love me, right?”

TJ nodded, wide-eyed. “More than anything.”

“Good.” Cyrus smiled. He didn’t think he’d ever get tired of the matter-of-fact way TJ told him he loved him, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “And I love you. That much we know for certain, okay?”

“Yeah,” TJ concurred, his tears thankfully starting to cease.  

“So, if a ghost suddenly flew through this wall and tried to hurt me…”

“I’d kill it with my bare hands.”

Cyrus grinned. “Exactly.”

A tentative smile appeared on TJ’s face, instantly outshining the sticky sheen of tears drying dully beneath his eyes. “Are you saying my love for you is more powerful than an actual  _spirit_ , Underdog?”

“I’m saying there’s no one else I feel safer with than you.” As if to emphasise his point, he drew TJ closer, the toes of their shoes kissing shyly in the murky shadows swimming around their feet. It wasn’t exactly the most romantic setting, but that didn’t stop his heart from stuttering as he stared into TJ’s eyes, impossibly green and desperately tender as always.

“You really mean that?” TJ asked.

Cyrus bumped their shoulders together, a teasing smile dancing on his lips. “There aren’t many guys who would kill a ghost with their bare hands for me, are there?”

“I think you’d be surprised… I’m sure there’d be people lining up to protect you.”

“Yeah, well.” Cyrus shrugged, gave TJ’s hand a slow, meaningful squeeze. “There’s only one person I want in my corner, and he’s standing right in front of me.”

“Really?”

“Yep.”

When TJ ducked his head, Cyrus could see the beginnings of a blush creeping up the back of his neck. He watched fondly as his boyfriend directed a bashful smile at the carpet of dust beneath his feet, then glanced back up at him with a dazzling grin that sucked the air out of his lungs, leaving him breathless and dizzy for a moment.

“You don’t mind having a wuss for a boyfriend?”

Cyrus pretended to consider the question, then smiled, leaning forward to press a featherlight kiss to TJ’s muck-smeared forehead. He plucked a sprinkling of rust from his dirty blond waves and gave his ruddy cheeks a playful pinch. “Only if you don’t.”

“I guess we’re okay then.”

“Yeah,” Cyrus said, his smile turning even fonder. “We’re okay.”

A few minutes of comfortable silence passed between them, the damp odours and slithering shadows of the old house fading away as they held each other close. Cyrus dried TJ’s eyes with the sleeve of his jacket while TJ wiped his grimy hands on the backs of his jeans, grimacing at the dirt still crusted beneath his fingernails. Once he was relatively muck- and tear-free, TJ’s eyes followed the muffled sound of laughter in the next room, his throat bobbing nervously. Cyrus guided his attention back to his face with a gentle smile.

“We don’t have to stay,” he told him. “If you’re not having fun, we can leave right now.”

TJ shook his head. “Nah. I’m good, I just… They’re all gonna look at me funny.”

“No, they won’t.”

“I made a scene, Cyrus. I gave them exactly what they wanted.”

“Well, if it’s any consolation, Amber looked kinda guilty after you left. She asked me to tell you she’s sorry.”

“Right.” TJ rolled his eyes. He was anxiously rolling his left thumb and forefinger together, his other hand holding onto Cyrus for dear life. “I know it’s in her nature to show off. Buffy’s too. But still… I wish we could even the score, you know? Give them a taste of their own medicine.”

Cyrus paused, his thumb freezing mid-sweep across TJ’s knuckles. The outlines of a plan were taking shape in his mind, an impish smile slowly spreading across his face. He patted his back pocket, making sure his phone was still there, then turned to the dumbwaiter buried in the wall to his right. Its sliding door was nibbled with mould and crawling with dirt, but it seemed sturdy enough. And when Cyrus lifted it up (his fingers twisted in his sleeve to keep them from touching the slimy surface of the embedded handle), it easily clicked into place, revealing a gaping mouth stacked with three wooden shelves, and a fraying rope threaded through the middle.  

“Don’t worry,” he said, turning to TJ with a mischievous grin. “I have an idea.”

~~~~~

When they finally returned to the group, they were met with awkward smiles and mumbled apologies, but nothing considerable enough to put a stop to their plan. Even if they’d all fallen to their knees and begged for TJ’s forgiveness, Cyrus probably would’ve stuck to it anyway. He was tired of TJ walking on eggshells around his friends, and he was tired of constantly playing the meek and submissive role in the group. If Buffy and Amber wanted to have some real fun, then that’s exactly what they were going to get.

“Have you calmed down now?” Buffy asked TJ, the mocking lilt of her voice adding more fuel to the fire burning inside Cyrus’ gut.

TJ flashed her a fake smile. “Yeah. Thanks for asking.”

“Maybe you should worry about your own boyfriend,” Cyrus said, nodding at Marty. “He’s looking a little peaky.”

Marty sat up straighter and forced his drooping eyelids open. “Huh? Oh, no… I’m just a little tired. And cold. And, um… Hungry?”

“Suck it up!” Buffy cried, giving her boyfriend’s shoulder a firm shake.

As Buffy and Marty exploded into a bickering match, TJ turned his body towards Cyrus, effectively cutting them both off from the rest of the group, and rested his forehead on Cyrus’ shoulder. His voice was hushed when he spoke, too soft for anyone else to hear above the shrill sound of Buffy throwing insults at her boyfriend; if it weren’t for the adoring smile on Marty’s face, Cyrus would probably feel sorry for the guy.

“You don’t have to stick up for me, you know,” TJ said, affectionately rubbing his nose against the base of Cyrus’ throat. “I mean, it’s adorable, but… You don’t need to do that.”

Cyrus gave his ear a gentle flick. “Stop it, Teej. You know I’m never gonna stop sticking up for you.”

TJ responded with a kiss, his palm grazing the back of Cyrus’ neck and his thumb stroking the jut of his jawbone. When they pulled away, there was a familiar, dreamy expression lidding TJ’s eyes and softly dimpling his cheeks, and Cyrus could feel the popping of fireworks deep inside his chest, showering his heart with bursts of colour that made the dark and dusty room seem a little bit brighter, if only for a few seconds.  

“I love you,” TJ murmured.

A golden peony erupted in the sky. “I love you, too.”

“Hey, love-birds,” Buffy called over to them, leaning forward to pat the empty space they’d left in the circle. “Care to join us?”

“Sure.”

Before Cyrus could shuffle back towards the group, TJ took him gently by the arm and lowered his voice to a barely audible whisper. “So, when are we gonna do this thing?”

“Buffy told us to wait for the haunting to start,” he said simply, lifting his shoulders in a noncommittal shrug that completely contradicted the devious twinkle in his eyes. “So, that’s what we’re gonna do. We’ll wait until their defences are down, and then we’ll give them the scare they’ve been waiting for.”

TJ blinked at him in surprise. “Who are you and what have you done with my sweet and innocent boyfriend?”

“I think you secretly like it.”

“Well, you could literally spit in my face, and I’d still find you adorable, so…”

Cyrus scrunched up his nose and laughed. ”You’re disgusting.”

“I guess you don’t wanna share a sleeping bag with me then?”

“I never –”

“Hey, it’s okay! I guess I’ll just have to cuddle by myself.”

“That’s not even possible, Teej.”

“I’ll figure it out.”

“Just shut up and get in the sleeping bag,” Cyrus said, giving his boyfriend a gentle shove as he squeezed in beside him, a pleasant shiver rolling down his spine as the warmth of TJ’s body thawed the chill in his bones. And as the rest of the group slowly but surely fell asleep, Cyrus closed his eyes and pretended to snore, quietly waiting for the perfect time to exact their revenge…

~~~~~

It was the whispers that woke them up. One by one, they rubbed their eyes and lifted their heads, still groggy with sleep, and glanced at the same spot on the ceiling, where the noise seemed to be slipping through a spider-shaped crack in the crumbling plaster.

“What is that?” Buffy asked, sounding more annoyed than frightened.

Jonah swallowed thickly. “It… I-It sounds like a voice.”

“Huh?”

“A voice,” Andi agreed, her eyes fixed on the ceiling as she jerked her head up and down. She was clinging onto Amber’s arm so tightly that Cyrus could see the white bands of her fingers glowing against Amber’s skin. “Do you think somebody’s here?”

“No,” Amber said, wrapping a protective arm around her girlfriend all the same. “We would’ve heard them before. Right, guys?”

They all mumbled in agreement, but it did nothing to quell the whispers. In fact, they seemed to be getting louder, more pronounced, as if someone was trying to tell them something…

“Oh my god,” TJ breathed. He was staring at his phone, and looking convincingly terrified, which made Cyrus feel weirdly proud. He even felt a pinch of fear when TJ raised his head and sucked in a shuddering breath. “It’s 3:15.”

“What?” Amber squeaked.

All at once, the rest of the group started checking their phones, the blood draining from each of their faces as they saw the same time staring back at them.

“The Hanging Lady,” Jonah muttered, voicing what they’d likely all been thinking.

Marty snorted a weak laugh. “No, that’s… That’s just a stupid story. Amber  _told_ us she made it up.”

“Exactly,” Buffy said. Now that she was fully awake, her annoyance had shifted into wariness, but not absolute fear. Cyrus had predicted she’d need a little extra push.

As if on cue, the indecipherable whispers took the form of real, solid words –  _names_ , to be exact. They were distant and muffled, but definitely there, and Cyrus could see the exact moment on Jonah’s face when he decided that enough was enough.

“Nope!” Jonah sprung to his feet and raced for the door. “Sorry, guys, but I’m out.”

Andi was close behind him, followed by a slightly disgruntled- (but mainly petrified-) looking Amber clutching tightly onto Andi’s hand, the pair of them flicking panicked glances around the room as they hurried to join Jonah outside. From the doorless gap in the wall, Cyrus could see them shivering on the stone steps. They were staring up at the twisting staircase at the end of the hallway, where the whispers could be heard even more clearly, and holding onto each other with shared expressions of pure terror.  

“What’s going on?” Andi moaned.

Buffy poked her head into the hallway, clearly masking her own fear with a boastful smirk. “You’ve lost, that’s what’s going on.”

“Hey, babe?” Marty placed a hand on Buffy’s shoulder as he followed Andi’s wide-eyed gaze up the stairs. He tilted his head to the side, his ears perked up, and listened closely as the whispered words rolled steadily down the stairs, like ghostly footsteps. “I think maybe we should leave…”

For a split second, there was a crack in Buffy’s stubbornly brave façade, as if Marty’s fear had suddenly made the whole thing seem more real to her, but she quickly patched it up with a scoff. “Are you insane? You wanna forfeit the game? No way!”

“Buffy –”

“It’s probably just the wind!” she exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air. “Old buildings always make weird noises.”

“Do they  _talk_ , too?”

“No one is talking, Marty! You’re hearing things. We’re  _all_ hearing things.” Buffy breathed deeply through her nose, as if trying to calm herself down, then sauntered into the hallway, shrugging off Marty’s desperate grip on her shoulder. With her back to the staircase, she placed her hands on her hips and waited. “See? There’s nothing –”

_“Buffy!”_

The whispers were verging on screams now. Raspy, ghoulish-sounding screams that kept calling Buffy’s name over and over again, their pleas turning sharp with impatience as Buffy stood at the bottom of the staircase, frozen still with shock.

“Marty,” she said, squeezing her eyes shut as more whispers pierced the shadowed hallway. “Please tell me this is some kind of joke.”

Before Marty could answer, another scream tumbled down the stairs and knocked Buffy forward, effectively shattering her hard exterior into a million, irreparable pieces.

_“Buffy! Buffy! Buffy! Buffy –”_

“Let’s get out of here!” Buffy cried, grabbing Marty by the arm and dragging him towards the exit.

Cyrus and TJ watched gleefully as they made a break for the front door, almost knocking Jonah down the stone steps in their haste to get out of the house. The moment they were outside, clutching their knees and gasping for breath, TJ fished his phone out of his pocket and silenced the voices with the press of a button.

“That turned out better than I expected,” Cyrus grinned, giving TJ a triumphant high-five as the rest of the group gawped at them from the doorway, their mouths hanging open.

Buffy frowned. “What –”

“What’s going on?” TJ completed her question with the quirk of an eyebrow. “We just won the game, that’s what’s going on.”

“But… But…”

“You messed with my boyfriend,” Cyrus explained, his eyes lingering on Amber and Buffy as he said this, “so I decided to mess with you.”

Jonah took a hesitant step towards the house. “You mean, this was all you?”

“Yep.”

“Oh.” He blinked a few times in obvious confusion, then graced them with a smile of relief as he stepped back inside the hallway. “That was pretty cool, dude.”

Andi laughed nervously. “But,  _how_?”

“We found an old dumbwaiter in the next room,” Cyrus told them, oddly enjoying the rare attention the entire group were giving him right now. “We recorded the voices on my phone and set it as my ringtone, then put my phone in the dumbwaiter and sent it up a couple floors.” He flicked a knowing smirk at TJ. “Then TJ rang my phone when you were all asleep.”

“At 3:15?” Amber asked, sounding unimpressed.

TJ shrugged. “It was just a lucky coincidence.”

“ _Sure_.”

“How did we not hear you recording the voices?” Buffy interjected. She was a little pink in the cheeks, either from her sprint across the hallway, or the humiliation of defeat slowly sinking in.

Cyrus mirrored TJ’s shrug, feigning innocence as he looked Buffy straight in the eye and said, “Maybe you couldn’t hear us over the sounds of you laughing at TJ’s expense?”

For a brief moment, Buffy’s cheeks flared even brighter, her eyes softening slightly as she glanced over at TJ. “Oh. Right.”

“I’m sorry for laughing,” Jonah was the first to say. He walked across the hallway and offered his hand to TJ, giving it a firm, brotherly shake. “That trick was awesome, guys. How the hell did you pull it off?”

TJ tapped his temple with his forefinger and winked. “It’s not about being brave, it’s about being  _smart_.”

“Well, you were definitely smart,” Andi said, still looking a little bit shaken up, despite her tentative smile. She gave Cyrus a quick, one-armed hug, then shook her head at TJ. “You almost gave me a heart attack, you know?”

“Sorry,” Cyrus chuckled.

Amber heaved a heavy sigh as she joined Andi in the hallway. “I’ve gotta admit, that was pretty good… Even though you stole my bit,” she added, punching TJ in the arm.

“That’s what you get for sharing the story with all our friends.”

“Touché.”

On the opposite end of the hallway, still standing in the doorway with an expression almost as cold and grey as the stone steps she was standing on, Buffy folded her arms and lifted her eyebrows as high as her hairline. “You know that’s cheating, right?”

Marty touched her arm. “Babe –”

“I never said you were allowed to use your phones like that.”

Cyrus considered this, then shrugged once again. “Well, you never said we  _couldn’t_ either, so…”

For a quiet and seemingly endless moment, Buffy simply glared at him from across the hallway, her face twisted with a scowl as she drummed her fingers against her arm, silently judging him from afar. But then, after a beat of pregnant silence, her lips twitched with an uncontrollable smile, and Cyrus knew she’d already forgiven them.

“Okay,” she sighed, dropping her arms to her sides in surrender as she strolled across the hallway. “You got me.”

TJ grinned. “Are you admitting you lost, Driscoll?”

“Don’t push it.”

“We’re gracious losers,” Marty said, now standing behind Buffy with his arm draped around her shoulders. “Right, babe?”

Buffy plastered on a smile. “Absolutely.”

“She’s dying inside,” Amber said with a snort.

“Definitely,” Andi giggled.

Before another argument could break out, Jonah stepped between them, hands raised in a placating manner, and gave them all a soothing (if not slightly desperate) smile. “Okay, okay… Now that Cyrus and TJ have won, can we please get out of here?”

Amber nodded in eager agreement. “Yes! That sounds like a good idea.”

“You’re just having Instapic withdrawals,” Andi said fondly.

“So what if I am?”

Andi appeased her girlfriend with a kiss on the cheek, then turned to the rest of the group. “Who’s up for leaving?”

Everyone’s hands shot into the air.

“Oh, thank god.”

As he watched his friends collecting their things from the other room, each of them smiling and laughing in ways that made his heart soar with a dizzying sense of contentment, Cyrus found TJ’s hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. Even with the shadows creeping across the splintered floorboards, and the dim wash of moonlight casting an eerie glow across their faces, Cyrus didn’t feel an ounce of fear as he stood there in that rickety old house, holding onto his boyfriend’s hand with an easy, gratified smile.

“Would you come with me to get my phone?” he asked.

TJ pulled him closer, already dialling Cyrus’ number to help lead the way. “Still scared?”

“No, I just… I think I’d like the company.”

And with that, they made their way up the creaking staircase, hand in hand, and followed the sounds of the whispers.


End file.
